I guess the implications of this task are not obvious to everyone. For those of you that don't understand what needs to be done and what it means, I'll try to clarify it. This is gonna be a wall of text. Anyone that isn't interested in the inner workings of this project should just stop reading now. In fact, this entire thread is probably not your cup of tea.
When Cooper ran the Syclant project, he had no rules or predetermined structure for the process. All we knew was that he was running the show, it would be a step-by-step process, and there would be community polls involved. I don't know if Cooper had a master blueprint or not -- I doubt it. I think he had a good gut feel for how he wanted it to work, and he played by ear as he went along. And, all things considered, it worked great.
After Syclant was done, Cooper didn't want to run the next one, so he assigned the task to Hyra. Hyra obviously liked a lot of what Cooper did, because he ran the Revenankh process very much like Cooper ran Syclant. Hyra made some slight changes here and there, but it was pretty much the same general process.
Did Hyra have to follow the same process as Cooper? No. He could do just about anything he wanted. What if Hyra would have made a dictatorial decision? What if I bribed Hyra to throw out all the art submissions and select my djinni design by executive fiat? What could we do about it? Nothing really. Individuals could stop participating, but that's about it. Fortunately, we've had two excellent mini-mods that never intentionally abused their power over the process.
But, I don't think it's a good idea to expect perfect altruism from everyone in the future. In fact, many times, individuals can make very poor decisions, while THINKING they are acting in everyone's best interests. There have already been significant disagreements with the mini-mods in the past. At no time, do I think the mini-mods were ever trying to lord over the process.
The fact that the project has made it this far, is somewhat of a miracle. Just think about it for a second: Did anyone really have to "follow" Cooper or Hyra? Absolutely not. We call them mini-mods, but they can't infract people or control posts and threads.
At any time, some disgruntled faction of the project could have struck off on their own and made their own polls. Perhaps when there was disagreement over Cooper's decisions regarding Mountaineer -- remember that? What if JoeBlowUser would have said "Screw you Cooper, me and 30 other project members think we can do this a better way. We're making our own polls from here on out, and I'm gonna be the mini-mod." Realistically, there would be little that could have been done. Cooper and others could complain to Smogon site staff, but most of Smogon couldn't have cared less about the project at that point. Maybe Smogon would have stepped in and controlled it, maybe not. I'm glad it never came to that. In general, we all accepted Cooper and Hyra's leadership and let them run the show however they saw fit.
The current construction process guideline is easy to document. Here it is:
"There is a mini-mod. They can do whatever they want. Everyone must do what they say. When they are done, they can hand-pick their successor. Rinse, repeat.
PS. They don't even have to pick a successor, technically they can keep going for as long as they want."
OK, I don't know about you -- but that is not a good way to run a community organization. The "benevolent dictator" is a wonderful form of government -- until somebody forgets the "benevolent" part. That is why democratic communities set up rules and guidelines. They then select leaders to enact and enforce those guidelines. If the guidelines are known to everyone, then everyone knows what is happening and what is about to happen. That eliminates surprises and tons of disagreements. To use a management cliche -- it is "expectation setting".
I have been involved in many communities, some good and some bad. Without structure, communities tend toward chaos and dissent. Factions form, wars begin, and the community crumbles. This happens easily in online communities. I don't want that to happen here. I have certain capabilities to prevent members from getting out of control. Smogon staff has certain capabilities to prevent me from getting out of control. If we lay out some guidelines for the construction process, then everyone will know what to expect when we build pokemon, and how to judge our progress. That should help curb dissension and chaos.
When we build a pokemon -- What is the community expectation? How should the process unfold? I want us to write it down and put it in a sticky for the world to see. Future mini-mods should use it as a point of reference. Newcomers can use it to get a "lay of the land" and understand how we do things here.
Using the outline from the OP, here's a partial list of questions that should be answered in various sections of the guidelines.
Construction Process Guide
Mini-Mod
Selection
How do mini-mods get selected?
What are the qualifications?
Role
What are their responsibilties?
What "powers" do they have?
Order
What steps do we vote on?
What is the general sequence of polls?
Step Descriptions
What are the details of "complex" polls?
For example:
What types are included in the typing poll?
Are "previously used" types excluded? Why?
How are art and sprite submissions gathered?
How do you determine which art is included in the first art poll?
Why do certain people get to submit base stats?
What are the qualifications?
How are movelists determined?
Voting Methods
Which polls should be single choice? Which should be multi-choice?
In multi-choice polls, what is the threshold for a "winning" choice?
What is bold text voting? How are they counted? Can bold votes be changed?
Can the mini-mod choose any voting method on any poll?
How is playtesting organized?
How long do we playtest a pokemon?
Revision
What conditions would cause a revision to a pokemon?
How are revisions proposed and voted on?
I want to know who are going to be the movers and shakers on this project that are going to author the first "official" construction process. I'm not going to do it. I have enough responsibilities with the forum and the server. Also, there is already enough perception out there that this is somehow "my project". If someone else owns this very important task, it spreads the "balance of power" on the project to other people, and all the attention that goes with it.
This isn't an "honorary" task. There's a lot of work to be done. I'd prefer to have one lead writer and maybe one or two other writers to help. Hopefully, the community as a whole will be involved in the workshop thread to give feedback and editorial help.
Anyone out there who has aspirations to be a mini-mod in the future -- you should be very interested and involved in this process. That doesn't mean you need to be a named writer on this document. But, if you aren't prepared to do the work to help formalize the process -- don't expect to be given the responsibility to lead a pokemon project in the future.
